Unit Delta 54
by JLancaster
Summary: The impossible mission on Thear, a planet in ther borderline of separatist space, carried out by the newly appointed Captain Hazar and his unit.
1. The Briefing

**Unit Delta 54**

Chapter 1: The Briefing

"Dropping out of hyperspace in 30 minutes." A voice announced on the speakers in the cantina.

"All Delta captains to report to the Bridge." The speaker commanded.

Captain Delta-H034, or "Hazar" as he was known ran to the elevator, he had his armor on already, the distinctive red claimed its status over the untamed white that represented his Kaminoan origins.  
He entered the elevator the same time as another Captain. Gorek was the Captain of the Delta unit 33, he was a largely competitive clone, and was egger to detach from anything that related him to his fellow brothers. No one knew how it had happened but Gorek had had plastic surgery and now resembled nothing like a clone. Most clones had reacted badly to these but in time they accepted as they had accepted Gorek and his unit customized armor, which was of dark red instead of the usual white. None the less the captain was excellent in battle and his opinion was highly revered.

"Hey there Hazar." His deep voice spoke.

"Hi Gorek."

Both men had their helmets off and carried them on their arms. Captain Hazar, or Lieutenant Hazar as he was just a month ago had an expression of fear.

"Not afraid, are you Hazar?"

"No sir, but it is my third battle as a Captain, and I am not accustomed to this kind of responsibility, sir."

"No need to call me sir, Hazar, we are equals now."

Gorek was a senior Captain with already an huge reputation in battle, it was a great compliment to be called an equal by him.

"Thank you si… Gorek, I am just not used to."

"You'll make a fine Captain kid, you already have quite a reputation, don't let the other fools think otherwise, not every captain in the Delta Units deserves to be so, but you do."

The elevator stopped they had reached the Helm Bridge. They quickly stepped out and joined the other eight delta captains aboard the Venator-class Star Destroyer.  
All the captains were facing the Admiral and two clone commanders that were on the other side of an holoprojector shaped like a table.  
The holoprojector showed the image of Thear, a planet much like Alderaan; it was called the planet of the five capitals, due to the five huge cities located in the planet.  
Other than those five cities there were at least fifty four small cities.

"We are all here finally. There is little time so I will be brief. As you know we are about to arrive on Thear space, our mission is to liberate the planet. The planet is my home planet as some of you may know, and it was a peaceful one until its corrupted government joined the Confederacy. Now we must conquer it for the good of the republic and of Thear citizens. It' is located in the borderline of separatist space so it would be a crucial advance to the republic war effort if we were able to liberate the planet." The Admiral took a long breath before continuing the briefing.

"Unfortunately there are few reinforcements available so we are limited to the three capital ships consisted in our battle group. Our intelligence says there is a full blockade mounted around the planet, and we are heavily outnumbered, there is no chance of ceasing the blockade from space without reinforcements. So we are dependent on the 54 Delta Units aboard the three main vessels. Your mission is to take the eighty three cities around the planet that have become forward outposts for CIS. To do that you will have to break the blockade, and unfortunately there will be the only time we will be able to help you, as we must jump to hyperspace before taking too much damage in the main vessels." The Admiral stopped again, looking at the clones facial expressions, but none of them gave the slightest hint on what they were feeling.

"It will be a very hazardous mission, and you will probably spent weeks on the planet, we will return when the sixty outposts belong to us or we manage to get more ships, because before that we won't stand a chance against the CIS fleet. When the outposts are taken your Commander will contact the fleet and we shall proceed to the full attack on the separatist blockade."

Now the Admiral wasn't making any sense, Hazar thought, Commander Delta the commander of the DU(Delta Units) had died in battle, and there hadn't been appointed a new one.

"I am please to say that we have appointed Gorek as the new DU Commander." The Admiral spoke.

It wasn't even seen a smile behind Gorek's beard.

"You will proceed to board the LAATs and you will land in different zones, each of your Units must take at least two outposts and then contact Commander Gorek."

The Admiral showed one by one the location of the outposts and were the units should land, with the help of the hologram of the project.

"We will contact you when you reach land with the final recommendations." The Admiral walked to the further away from the captains and the holoprojector as he spoke.  
He finally turned around to the DU ten captains that were aboard the ship.  
"You are dismissed, go limitedly to your transports, and be a sure that the success of this mission depends on you and only you."

With these words all the captains left the bridge.  
Hazar quickly reached deck 7 were his unit was.  
He wasn't familiar with all ninety clones in his unit, unit 54, he knew they were capable man and there were only ten rookies among them. He was only familiar with his squad of sixteen of his brothers, which four of them were rookies assigned just after the last battle.  
Hazar putted on his helmet, grabbed his DC-15 blaster and entered the deck.

"Captain on deck!" One of his five lieutenants announced.

The clone troopers were all involved in activities, but at the sound of the lieutenant they almost jumped into formation.  
Hazar explained the mission and ordered them to get there survival gear and weapons to load a backpack with everything they could get their hands on, munitions, food, water, grenades, everything.  
By the time the five minutes warning to drop out of the hyperspace sounded all Deltas were ready inside the LAATs.


	2. Space Assault

Massive explosions were now heard. The battle had started and it spared no one. The powerful fleet of the separatists was slaughtering the Republic's small battle group. The conflict was uneven, but still the brave soldiers of democracy fought, starfighters were blown up to pieces, the Star Destroyers were losing their shields quickly.  
Despite being outnumbered, republic clones were still able to blow up some droid fighters.  
Now the LAAT's were flying across space trying to breech the blockade and reach the planet, unfortunately the only who had breeched the blockade, had crashed into the planet due to the vulture droids who wouldn't let go of them.

"Maximum speed reached captain." The pilot of LAAT 54a, the main LAAT commissioned to the Delta Unit 54.

Another explosion and the LAAT 54a moved aside it, other of the landing force units had been destroyed, the pilot had learned of the complete destruction of delta units 20 and 30.

"Kalo, what happened? What was that explosion?" Captain Hazard asked.

"Another LAAT was just blown to pieces Captain, but 54a, b and c are still operational." Responded the captain.

The LAAT 54a was flying in formation with five more gunships, it had started as a formation of ten, but the clankers were just too many and too fast.  
As they came close to the planet, and CIS battleships, two more LAATs were destroyed.

"Sir… I believe we must leave formation if we hope to reach the planet." Kalo spoke through the intercom that connected the cockpit to the compartment were thirty clones of Unit 54 were.

"Kalo that is not possible, I repeat not possible. Stay in formation until ordered otherwise." Communications were a bit shaky but Hazar was understood.

The space battle continued, more and more republic starfighters were being destroyed every Republic force was overwhelmed they would have to pull out of the battle soon or risk total annihilation.  
A CIS gunship was now in pursuit of the five LAAT's. They turned right, and then took a dive, but the enemy ship wouldn't abandon it's pray. The HMP, as it was known, was in a tight pursuit of the LAATs, laser bolts passed by one LAAT rapidly and few seconds after, one had it it and it was destroyed. The other remained in formation but dare not to return fire because it would risk bringing unwanted attention.  
The HMP fired again this time hitting a gunship on the right wing of the formation. The gunship lost control and crashed into the other LAAT of the same unit and they both went down. Now only unit 54 LAATs remained in formation, that meant he was in charge, Hazar was in charge.

"Kalo, break formation now! Do whatever you want but on get us on that planet!" Hazar screamed through the intercom.

"Roger that sir." Kalo said.

He was an experienced pilot, yet he was more used to fly starfighters like V-19s with much more maneuverability.

"AS-12, AS-16, follow me." He said to the two rookie pilots flying the remaining LAATs.

He grabbed the controller, and turned off the engines. The other LAATs copied the master pilot, and the enemy gunship was surprised and flew passed them. Kalo knew it had work, he pressed his thumb and the LAAT fired ten green laser bolts directly into the HMP destroying it.

Five droid vultures appeared on the radar right behind them. He started its engine and quickly attained maximum speed. The other two LAATs were right behind him but so were the vultures. He was now passing right by a CIS cruiser and its auto-turrets began firing, with extreme precision he avoided the laser bolts, and for his surprise and fortune so did the rookie pilots. A vulture was caught in the middle and exploded, one was down, he went right to get some distance from the cruiser.

"Gunners, you have permission to fire." He said loud and clearly to his two gunners.

They were extremely effective as he had come to know in the previous battle, they quickly shot down three of the vultures with three single shots. They were flying towards the planet, Kalo looked to the right and he saw that more LAATs had broken through the blockade and were now heading towards the planet. Perhaps there was hope for this mission. He started to see Thear's surface more clearly and a feeling of happiness joined the adrenaline he was feeling.

"Rookies, let's try the "esk" move." He commanded through the intercom.

"Roger that, sir." AS-12 and AS-16 said.

The "esk" move was quite simple to do, sometimes it was considered to basic for some of the master pilots and too dangerous for others, it designed for a simple, swift evasion of battle, and was considered a great move by Kalo.

"Hold on." He said to all troopers on his gunship.

Kalo pulled all power to the left side propulsors making the ship roll right, and then he with a sudden move we was able to switch all power to the engines making the ship reach 51MGLT per hour, during only five seconds, but it was enough to make them all the way through the atmosphere.  
The engines of the three gunships started failing almost simultaneous and they were forced to land. Depressurizing all systems Kalo was able to make a firm landing on a forest on the edge of the city they were supposed to attack. They seemed to have lost the vulture droid but no doubt the droids in the city would come search for them. At least they were on firm ground now.  
He finally opened the bay doors.


	3. Shelter

"Get the LAATs to form a semi-circle around us, shielding us from anything coming north. We need some cover." Shouted Captain Hazard.

They were alone now, his unit depended on him to survive, and more important to win the freedom of Thear. He had to devise a tactic that would defeat at least the first squads of droids.  
It was dark, you couldn't see a thing without night vision out there, fortunately all troopers had night vision incorporated on their helmets.

"Lieutenant Lar, Raz and Killam, scout the area, take your squads and find something big enough to shelter all of us!" Hazar commanded.

Three squads left the area scouting south, east and west, because their objective laid north along with battalions of droids.

"Come on those droids will be here in minutes." Said the Captain.

"Sir, the droids will be here in at least five minutes. Four squads left the city in speederbikes. There must be at least fifty of them sir. There was no big armament only regular clankers sir."

A clone in his shiny white armor informed the Captain.

"Nice job rookie. Get yourself in that tree watching them and you may only come down when they are at shooting range. Let's hope Killam and his men have find shelter by then."

The clones continued to work hard, until the LAATs were positioned correctly and there were crates feeling the breeches. They still had one minute. Every clone had its weapon a DC-15 blaster or rifle ready. They eagerly waited for the enemy to come.  
The noise of the clankers sounded closer by the second, adrenaline filled now the Captain and his body as well as his brothers'.  
The clone came down from the tree and Captain Hazar knew it was time for the first contact.

"Hold…" He whispered waiting to every squad of droids to be in range.

And finally he shouted:  
"FIRE!"

Blue blaster bolts echoed through the forest catching the droids by surprise. Twelve of them fell before they could take cover. Setting the speederbikes as the LAATs were but in opposite directions the droids were able to take cover, but it was hardly as good as the cover given by the gunships.  
The Captain looked over a crate and fired three more times heating two B1 battle droids. The captain almost panicked in sight of a B2 super battle droid commander who was aiming his proton cannon at the LAAT cockpit, but another clone of his squad quickly took him down. The droids fired constantly but they only hit the LAATs or the craters since they were not able to shoot directly at the clones. But they were gaining terrain pushing their cover forward, and this the Republic troopers could not afford, if they got close enough they would slaughter the clones.  
The captain took down four more B1 battle droids and with them there had been twenty-eight clankers destroyed.

"Captain we found shelter, you won't believe this. Coordinates are 13748960, sector 15."Hazar heard Killam saying happily through his helmet comm.

"We are on our way, Lieutenant." He responded.

Captain Hazar hurried transmitting the coordinates to the unit infra network. He signaled his brothers to retreat south and they immediately understood they had to go to those coordinates.  
Clones were running shooting back at the droids when they could, and they quickly disappeared into the forest. Captain Hazar was the last and he started running too, firing when he could, but out of nowhere he sees a droid commando coming at him at full speed. Before he could do anything the droid took him down causing Hazar to lose grip of his blaster. The droid tried to swing a punch at the captain but Hazar was able to move away from the punch that crushed a large rock in the droid's way. Hazar got up and kicked the droid but he barely moved. The droid took another hit at the clone captain directly to his stomach; the droid strength was so great it almost knocked the captain out.  
The BX commando was going to perform a killing blow on Hazar, but something shot him twice on the back causing him to fall on top of him. He saw Kalo's face and then all went black.


End file.
